While doctors and caregivers are at the front lines of dealing with emergencies, much of the planning and preparation starts with the pharmacy. Pharmacy teams are responsible for ensuring that critical medication is available when and where needed, safe and valid (i.e. not expired or recalled.) Crash cart preparedness plays an important role in emergency preparedness and is markedly improved with the addition of innovative RFID healthcare technology.
The April 2017 issue of The Joint Commission QuickSafety newsletter covered the topic of crash cart preparedness, noting that hidden issues could detrimentally effect patient safety. “In a 12-month data review of 2008, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority identified 56 reports that highlighted emergency or rapid response situations in which supplies or equipment were missing or outdated.” According to the article, some of the crash cart factors that contributed to patient safety events included:
Any delay in providing critical care to patients can create a safety risk. Innovations in RFID healthcare technology can help the pharmacy team ensure that crash carts are complete and reliable, improving patient safety and reducing risk.
>> Learn more about The Joint Commission Safety Standards and Intelliguard® RFID.
The combination of humans plus technology improves the safety and quality of care you deliver. In the case of crash carts, hospital pharmacy RFID automation effectively addresses the following patient safety concerns, which were noted in The Joint Commission newsletter:
>> View the Intelliguard® Pharmacy video to learn more about RFID for hospital pharmacy automation of kits and trays.
Human beings have common failure modes and certain conditions make it more likely for a human operator to make a mistake. Hospital pharmacy RFID automation eliminates human error, distraction and exhaustion that goes along with manually checking medications.
>> Download “The Risk of Relying on Human Perfection” white paper to learn more.
Contact us to learn more about improving crash cart reliability and patient safety at your facility.